Cognitive Archaeology and Human Evolution

ISBN-13: 9780521769778 / Angielski / Twarda / 2009 / 200 str.

Sophie De Beaune; Frederick L. Coolidge; Thomas Wynn

Opis

This book presents new directions in the study of cognitive archaeology. Seeking to understand the conditions that led to the development of a variety of cognitive processes during evolution, it uses evidence from empirical studies and offers theoretical speculations about the evolution of modern thinking as well. The volume draws from the fields of archaeology and neuropsychology, which traditionally have shared little in the way of theories and methods, even though both disciplines provide crucial pieces to the puzzle of the emergence and evolution of human cognition. The twelve essays, written by an international team of scholars, represent an eclectic array of interests, methods, and theories about evolutionary cognitive archaeology. Collectively, they consider whether the processes in the development of human cognition simply made a better use of anatomical and cerebral structures already in place at the beginning of hominization. They also consider the possibility of an active role of hominoids in their own development and query the impact of hominoid activity in the emergence of new cognitive abilities.

Spis treści

1. The emergence of cognitive abilities: the contribution of neuropsychology to archaeology Sophie A. de Beaune; 2. Technical invention in the Paleolithic: what if the answer comes from the cognitive and neuropsychological sciences? Sophie A. de Beaune; 3. Innovation and creativity: a neuropsychological perspective Andreas Kyriacou; 4. The archaeology of consciousness Matt Rossano; 5. Prehistoric handedness and prehistoric language Natalie Uomini; 6. How to think a simple spear Miriam Haidle; 7. Long-term memory and middle Pleistocene 'mysterians' Michael J. Walker; 8. The quest for a common semantics: observations on definitional criteria of cognitive processes in prehistory Carolina Maestro and Carmine Collina; 9. Cognition and the emergence of language: a contribution from lithic technology Jacques Pelegrin; 10. Language and the origin of symbolic thought Ian Tattersall; 11. Implications of a strict standard for recognizing modern cognition in the Paleolithic Thomas Wynn and Frederick L. Coolidge; 12. Imagination and recursion: issues in the emergence of language Eric Reuland; 13. Whither evolutionary cognitive archaeology? Thomas Wynn.